Shoe sole and heel construction



July 11, 1939. A. VIGORITH ET AL SHOE SOLE AND HEEL CONSTRUCTION FiledDec. 28, 1956 W? Wm 52 j W m n QM Patented July 11, 1939 UNITED STATESSHOE SOLE AND HEEL CONSTRUCTION Anthony Vigorith, Ernst J. Story, andJohn M.

Delaney, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignors to United Shoe MachineryCorporation, Paterson, N. 1., a corporation of New Jersey ApplicationDecember 28, 1936, Serial No. 117,726

3 Claims.

The present invention relates to a new and improved shoe sole and heelconstruction.

An object of the invention is to provide a novel means of attaching asole to a heel, with a mate- 5 rial saving of time, labor and expense.

. Another object of the invention is to provide means for the purposestated, whereby the connection between a sole and heel is effectedneatly and quickly with a saving of leather, and with increaseddurabilityandstrength at the juncture of the parts.

Another object of the invention is to accomplish the advantages abovestated, without necessitating changes in the shoe manufacturingmachinery presently in use. i

The foregoing and other objects are attained by the means describedherein and disclosed in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a novel shoe sole embodying theinvention.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a heel such as may be attached to thesole of Fig. 1 in accordance with the teaching of the present invention.

Figs. 3 and 4 are views of other types of heels that may be associatedwith the novel sole referred to.

Fig. 5 is a central longitudinal sectional viewof a shoe assembled inaccordance with the invention, the lining and other non-essentialelements being omitted. I

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a modification of the sole of Fig. 1. I

To practice the invention, there is first provided a flat-formed shoesole 1 of leather or the like, which is skived or chamfered as at 8along both sides and around the toe portion, for the purpose ofthinningthe sole edges. This results in maintaining the full sole thicknessinwardly of the chamfered or skived marginal portion of the sole. Thechamfered or skived marginal portion of the sole subsequently willsupport the shoe upper, in accordance with common practice.

At the heel end 9, the sole is to be split along a plane parallel to theplane of the sole, from one chamfered edge to the other, so as toprovide flap edges or cuts l and I2 which lie within the chamfers. Thethin upper flap i3 thereby formed at the flesh side of the sole,cooperates with the anchor portion ll at the grain side of the sole, tofurnish a pocket or groove I of a depth indicated by the broken line 18of Fig. 1. It should be noted that the sole edge It is not split,reduced in thickness, or in anyway marred or defaced by the splittingoperation just described.

The thickness of the flap l3 preferably is much less than that of theanchorportion it which is adapted tosupportthe sole on a heel. Afterhaving performed the splitting operation, the anchor portion of the soleis cut off as shown by the straight, transverse dotted line in Fig. 1,

which determines the length of the shoe.

At this point, it is desirable to call attention to the fact that thecutting off of the anchor portion of the sole along the above-mentionedtransverse line is performed before the building of the shoe, that is,before the arch brace, the upper and the insole are attached to thesole 1. This is a distinct advantage of the present invention over theold method of building a shoe, for the reason that it is difficult toperform the cutting off of the anchor portion along the desired lineafter the upper has been applied to the sole. Moreover, any mistake madein the cutting off operation before the upper is applied, is not asserious and expensive as would be such a mistake made after the majorportion of the shoe has been built upon the sole.

In prior shoe constructions employing a sole. of less than full length,the operators were faced with the disadvantage of having no spottinghole such as l8 for maintaining the sole in position upon thesole-laying machine during building of the shoe. In the presentconstruction, however, the flap [3 serves as an extension at the rear ofthe sole, to provide the material necessary to the formation of aspotting hole or perforation l8.

Persons skilled in the art to which the invention relates will readilyunderstand the use of spotting holes and cooperative pegs on asole-laying machine.

Under certain known methods of manufacture, it was necessary for theproper assembling of a shoe, to use a full length sole in order todetermine the position to be assumed by a heel to be applied to theshoe. In other words, the upper peripheral edge of the heel was fittedonto the sole so that the periphery of the'heel end of the solecoincided with the upper edge of the heel. This being the only necessaryfunction of the heel end of a full length sole, the practice wasnecessarily wasteful of sole material. In the present construction, theextreme rear end of the sole, that is, the flap I 3, terminates atsubstantially the center of the heel. This is indicated at I; in Fig.5.. In quantity production, this saving of sole material effects anenormous saving of manufacturing cost.

The shoe sole constructed as explained above is adapted for applicationto various types of heels. For example, Fig. 2 shows a heel having.

an upper attaching face or foot supporting portion is, which ispreferably concave,- and which has formed thereon a tongue or extension20 that overhangs the breast portion 2'! of the heel. The forward faceof the breast has a groove 22 cut therein for reception of the anchorportion ll' of the shoe sole. The groove referred to is preferablycurved and its opposite ends terminate in the upper face close to theedges 23 and formed between the flap i3 and the anchor porshoe.

tion id of the sole-is adapted to receive the tongue or extension whilethe flap overlies the tongue and part of the upper face of the heel,

the anchor portion M being snugly received in the curved slot 22. Thesevarious parts may be securely fixed in the stated relation, by applyingan adhesive to the tongue 20, groove 22 and the. upper face of the heel,before sliding the heel 'into'position relative to the sole. It isconceivable, of course, that other .known methods of flxing the heelrelative to the sole may be resorted to.

By referring to Fig.

is a continuation of the upper face of the slot or groove 22, so thatthe lower face 21 of the sole will present a perfectly smooth andvunbroken exterior from the breast of the heel to the toe of the shoe.The connection between the sole and the heel will not be discernible inthe fln-' 1 ished product, due to the fact that the sole edge iscontinuous and of uniform thickness through- .out the arch portion ofthe shoe, and due further to the fact that the joints will appear onlyin the upper face of the heel rather than in the sides thereof.Application of the upper and the insole willof course conceal the jointsand the flap I 3- completely.

In addition to the advantages above set forth, it should be noted thatpractically the full thickness of the sole at theanchor portion restsupon the heel at 22, resulting in a very rigid and durable connectionthat may not be readily severed by the application of weight to the archof the It may here be repeated that the application of the heel isgreatly facilitated by reason of the fact that the pocket formed betweenthe cuts l0 and i2 which define the flap, is readily accessible forreception of the 'tongue20 even though the entire shoe has been builtupon the sole I. In other words the. heelmay be easily applied afterapplication to the sole I of Fig. 5, of the metallic'or other rigid archbrace 28, the upper 29, and the insole 30. The insole, of course, may beapplied subsequent to fastening of the arch brace to the heel afterattachment of the sole as exemplified in Fig. 5. The arch brace 29 isapplied in theusual manner or by means of nails or'screws (not shown).In applying the character of sole disclosed in Fig. 1 to the type ofheel shown in Fig. 3, the procedure is similar to that heretoforeexplained, except that the rear edge of the anchor portion i4 merelyabuts the breast of the heel at substantially the elevation 3|. Theplate 32 may be of metal, fiber, or any other suitable rigid materialcapable of entering the pocket of the sole and eifect a tongue andgroove connection at the joint- The heel of Fig. 3 may be furnished witha groove such as 22 (Fig. or not, as desired.

The heel of Fig. 4 is quite similar to that of Fig. 2, except that theintegral tongue 33 is wider, and is not associated with a groove such as22. This type of heel is quite common, and should therefore require nofurther explanation, suillce it to say that the upper and lower faces ofthe tongue 33 are coated with adhesive before the tongue is insertedinto the pocket formed by the 5, it will be noted the lower face 25 ofthe tongue or extension 29 enema? flap and. the anchor portion of theshoe sole. In a shoe construetion employing the heel of Fig. 4, theadhesive connection between the shoe sole and the tongue 331s dependedupon for eflecting permanent attachment of the heel to the sole. In allcases, it is preferable to apply adhesive in such a manner that both theanchor portion l4 and the flap 13 will be adhesively fixed to the tongueand adjacent portions of the heel.

The particular manner in which the upper is attached to the sole, andthe arch brace to the heel, is of no consequence due to the fact thatthose operations are well known, and are moreover, irrelevant to thepresent invention. Those details, therefore, are omitted from thedrawing. As to the heel of Fig. 2, it should be understood that thetongue may be a separate element, as

\ disclosed at 32 of Fig. 3; and such modifications and changes instructural detail may be made,

within the scope of the'appended claims, without departing from thespirit-of'the invention.

The modification of Fig. 6 shows a sole of substantially the samecharacter as that of Figs. 1 and 5, except for the provision of thecorner notches 34 which facilitate entry of the sole portion into thegroove 22 of the Fig. 2 heel. The

' abutments 35 clearly will abut the breast of the heel adjacent to thegroove, to make a neat and inconspicuous joint. The sole of Fig. 6 isshown convexed, as it would generally be shaped prior to application ofthe heel.

What is claimed is:

heel, said rear portion including an anchoring edge and a flap, the flapbeing thinner than the anchoring edge and extending over and beyond saidanchoring edge rearwardly of the sole, a heel including a tongueextended forwardly thereof, the tongue being received beneath the flapand extended over the-anchoring edge, anda shelf on the heel beneath thetongue, adapted to receive and support the relatively thick anchoringedge ofthe sole, said shelf being curved and having opposite endsterminating in the attaching face of the heel.

2. A short leather outsole split at its rear end to provide a pocket toreceive a tongue projecting forward from a heel, the split being nearthe flesh face of the sole to provide a thick, short, anchor portion ofthe grain side of the sole to engage the breast portion of the heel anda thin flap portion of the flesh side of the sole projecting rearwardbeyond the anchor portion for a distance substantially less than thelength of the attaching face of the heel and narrower than the anchorportion, whereby it may be entirely concealed by the heel.

3. A shoe having a tongued heel and a short leather outsoleinterengaged'therewith, the rear end of the outsole being split toprovide a pocket in which the tongue of the heel is positioned, the endof the sole on the grain side of the split being thick and engaging thebreast portion of the heel and on the flesh side of the split beingthin, projecting back upon the attaching face of the heel, and beingshorter and narrower than said attaching face whereby it is entirelyconcealed by the heel.

ANTHONY V'IGORITI-l. ERNST J. STORY. JOHN M. DELANEY.

'1. In a shoe construction, the combination of v a sole having a. rearportion for attachment to a

